Sonnet To A Bumble Bee

“Brr – bzz” – O gay and festive bumble bee!

     Gamboling midst the pretty posies bright,

     Now on thy airy wing and now alight

‘Pon dainty flowers where thou should nottest be

But in a cell where beeies should be, see?

Be not afraid, O bumble bee! A hair

I would not harm upon thee anywhere

Upon thy noble head or business end,

Because, O bee, I wish to be thy friend.

“B – u – m”, bumble bee, hot stuff; on thee

Cold feet were quite unknown. I ne’er could see

     Why in Tophet thou was e’er let to live

     Unless it were to chase small boys, and give

Our summer boarders such anxiety.

June 3, ‘05

In the Hebrew Bible Tophet or Topheth was a location in Jerusalem, in the Valley of Hinnom, where worshipers influenced by the Canaanite Pantheon sacrificed children to the gods Moloch and Baal by burning them alive. Tophet became a theological or poetic synonym for hell within Christendom. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tophet